Master Kagami broke into hysterical laughter while Yama-san chuckled.
We all stared at the couple in puzzlement.
'Ma-Master, what does this mean?' demanded Shirane, speaking for all of us, and we got our reply as Burabura showed itself up, coming out from within the armor.
'You should have seen your faces! You looked so funny, funny, funny!' giggled the chōchin-obake, paying our heads off.
'Master Kagami! Yama-san!' we groaned, all together, for the fright they had given us with the help of the small yōkai.
Out of the blue, the window was blown open with a violent gust of wind that extinguished the petrol lamp and we were temporarily blinded as we took the wind directly in the eyes.
When we could see again, everyone froze at the sight of the dark figure which was perched on the window-sill, facing us.
My blood ran cold.
Instantly, Tsunan lit the petrol lamp again and everyone gulped audibly as they stared at the young girl perched there, who definitely, didn't belong to our world and whom, Hatsu and I recognized without any difficulty.
'You seem to be having great fun!' she said, and finding his voice again, Hatsu growled, 'No! Not her!'
'Do you know who she is, Hatsu?' asked Ayame, in a gibbering tone. 'Is she the girl who drowned in the lake or the one who had been buried alive in the Kaidan?'
'I'm sure that it's another prank of the master!' muttered Shirane, as he eyed the latter suspiciously.
'None of the two,' Hatsu answered to Ayame's question. 'She's Kokkuri-san!' Putting a fist up, he shouted angrily, 'Who has dared to play Kokkuri-san, huh? Who? Is it you Shun?'
Eh?
Crouching down, he pulled at my left cheek while he crushed his fist on top of my head.
'Ah! Ah! I didn't do anything!' I moaned, my eyes stinging with tears. I pressed them shut.
'Hatsu, stop it! You're hurting her!' Tsunan scolded him, but the blond male didn't listen.
'No, you didn't do anything!' Kokkuri-san told me, her voice closer than before.
Automatically, I opened my eyes to find the trickster spirit crouched down in front of me, holding her face in-between her hands, and staring at me in the face.
Hatsu stopped his small torture on me at that moment.
'Why don't you ever summon me?' she complained.
***
The following day…
'Do you think that he's going to show up?' Agasa called at me over her shoulder.
We were in Ogita Village, waiting for Yorinaga to arrive, to take him to the Buddhist priest Shūshin Daidōji.
The village was very close to the onsen and it was when I had asked the master permission for me to leave for Ogita with Agasa that he came up with the plan of a trip to the onsen.
'He will,' stated Kokkuri-san, and Agasa half-turned around to face us.
Attracted by my presence during the Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai, Kokkuri-san had made her apparition at the end of the game and ever since, she hadn't left my side even for a minute.
She constantly kept a grip on my kimono and followed me everywhere that I went.
Everyone found the spirit flippant and I had to admit that I felt a bit disturbed by her presence too, because there was something sinister about her.
She had been especially hostile towards Yanagi.
We had been in the communal dining area, preparing to take breakfast all together when she had come to a sudden stop- causing me to stop too since she had a grip on my clothes- when we had come across of Cho, Agasa and Yanagi.
With her eyes narrowed at the Gothic-Lolita, she had muttered, coldly, 'You, I don't like you! Stay away from Shun!'
'Wh-What's her problem?' had demanded Yanagi at her two friends, the spectacled girl having seemed both unnerved and jumpy at the same time.
I had hung my head, certain that the Gothic-Lolita hated me even more now.
'Why is she here?' Agasa asked me while she fixated the trickster spirit, her expression uneasy.
Not knowing what to reply, I simply giggled awkwardly.
Yorinaga came into view at that moment and I was relieved that he sticked to his word.
We headed for the cemetery where the suicided were buried, close to which Shūshin Daidōji had established himself, having built a small temple there.
'I have lied. I have deceived people. I want to redeem myself. But know that, if I didn't share your ideal, I would never have dared to show myself up in front of you,' asserted Yorinaga, bowing in front of the Buddhist priest. 'Will you please accept me as your successor?'
Shūshin Daidōji's reply came in the positive.
Before we would leave the region, I decided to visit the hokura of Raitogami to bring the latter an offering, and Agasa accepted to tag along.
As we began to make our way up the small dirt road to find the hokura, suddenly, I began to feel faint. It was, without any doubt, because of my injuries which hadn't completely healed yet.
'Hey, are you feeling unwell?' inquired Agasa, sounding worried, as she noticed that I was holding my head with my hand, having slowed down in my pace.
'It's going to pass,' I murmured, but I became more and more dizzy, my legs becoming heavy.
'Oi!'
Unable to hold myself up anymore, I began to fall forward when, out of the blue, a hand caught mine, preventing me from falling all the way to the ground, causing me to end up onto my knees instead.
The feeling of faint vanished instantly and I looked up on the spot to see that the person- or rather, the entity who was resting on one of his knees in front of me, holding my hand- was none other than Raitogami.
'Kami-sama!' I gasped.
Panicking, I pulled my hand away and sitting on my legs, I bowed down in front of him, placing my palms on the ground in reverence.
'You don't have to be so ceremonious!' he stated, before he made a sniffing sound and said, 'I've caught a good smell of Onigiri that has attracted me!'
Straightening up, I glanced at the bentō box- wrapped in a cloth- that Kokkuri-san was carrying.
She handed it to me and I held it out to the Kami.
'Oh, they're for you. I have made them myself. I was just coming to see you to bring them to you as an offering.'
He took the box from me, saying, 'Thank you for this offering. Do you have a prayer to formulate to me?'
I was taken by surprise.
'Uh, I don't know,' I murmured, thoughtfully. 'It's so sudden that everything is getting confused in my head.'
'In that case...'
I gave him a puzzled look.
'Allow me to get rid of that for you.'
He lifted his palm up to in front of my chest and to my astonishment, a kind of dark fume began to escape out of my chest, wrapping around his hand.
Is this the manifestation of the demonic imprint on my soul?!
Abruptly, the fume receded back into my body and the Kami gasped in shock. He stared at the remnant of black fume around his annular and auricular fingers for a minute, before he jerked to his feet, seeming confused and disturbed.
'Is there something wrong?' I asked, anxiously.
'I'll take care of that another time. I have to leave now.'
With this, he stood up, turned around and went out of sight.
'What did he just try to do?' Agasa asked me, in bewilderment, and I whispered, 'Cleanse my soul.'
***
When we got back to the onsen, it was already the evening.
'Oh, did you hurt yourself at the collarbone?' I asked Heihachi, as I noticed the red mark on his skin there.
We were in the game hall.
I peered in closer to have a look at the mark and flushed tomato red as I realized it wasn't an injury but a love mark!
Glancing down at the mark, Heihachi flushed up in embarrassment and he tried to hide it under the collar of his shirt, without success.
'Gosh! Hatsu can be so possessive!' he groaned.
'But that doesn't displease you!' stated the blond male, who appeared in that instant.
The younger male didn't deny it and simply flushed deeper.
I couldn't help but flush deeper too.
'Your face is all red, Shun!' Hatsu pointed out to me, in a teasing tone. 'It's crazy how innocent you can be! Do you want me to talk to Tsunan and ask him to show you in the very same way how possessive he can also be?''
I stared at the blond male, utterly mortified; so mortified that I thought I was going to burst a vessel.
The doctor arrived just at that moment, asking me, 'Why is your face all red? Are you feeling feverish?'
'Ah, Tsunan!' exclaimed Hatsu with a perverted grin. 'I just wanted to talk to you-'
Automatically, Heihachi and I covered his mouth with our hands, giving him a death glare.
The blond male closed his eyes, giggling.
'Come with me! We need to talk!' Heihachi growled at him, dragging him away by his collar, while the older male had a playful smile plastered on his face.
'What just happened?' Tsunan wondered, as he drew closer to me.
Covering the lower half of my face with my hand, I averted my eyes and scooted away in embarrassment.
As I was walking down one of the corridors, suddenly, I heard Natsuhiko's voice raise from one of the rooms, as he shouted, 'Stay away from her!'
Immediately, I headed for that room and what greeted my sight was the Amefurikozō standing protectively in front of a scared Gakkuri, while they were confronted to Kokkuri-san and the spirits of the canids- the fox, the dog and the raccoon.
'What's going on here?' I asked.
'She was taking on Gakkuri!' replied Natsuhiko, and I looked at Kokkuri-san, who was leering at them. The three canids began to growl menacingly at the boy spirit and Gakkuri.
Instantaneously, I jumped in the middle, exclaiming, frantically, 'Kokkuri, stop that!'
The trickster spirit's attention shifted onto me and a frown appeared on her forehead; not in the form of a scowl but rather, in a tormented way.
The spirits of the canids vanished in the seconds that followed and without any warning, Kokkuri-san ran out of the room.
'Ane-ue, go catch up with her!' Gakkuri told me in-between sobs. 'If she did that, it's because she holds on to you.'
The trickster spirit hadn't left my side even for a minute ever since she had appeared last night. I should have doubted that something was amiss when I couldn't see her anywhere around, just a while ago.
There was, without question, something sinister about the spirit but strangely, the more I spent time with her, the less it disturbed me. And even if her behavior had shocked and frightened me, I understood that my close relationship with Gakkuri had affected her and this had caused her to take on the latter.
'Alright. I'll just be back.'
As I ran out of the room after Kokkuri-san, abruptly, I went head-on into someone just outside of the door.
Looking up, I saw that it was Tsunan.
'Sorry,' I apologized, immediately, before I took a glance down the corridor where the trickster spirit had disappeared just around of the corner. 'Please, excuse me!'
I hurried away, running after the spirit to catch up with her.
'Kokkuri! Kokkuri, wait!' I called after the latter, as I followed her outdoors.
Since it had rained only a few hours ago, the floor was still slippery and her foot slipped in her run, causing her to fall down face flat on the ground, in front of the ryokan.
Rushing up to her, I crouched down and helped her to sit up.
I noticed that she had some dirt on her forehead and taking out my handkerchief, I cleaned her face with it.
She looked up at me in surprise.
'Kokkuri, I know why you did what you did,' I told her, softly. 'But you need to know that if you hurt Gakkuri, it's as if you're hurting me.'
'I'm sorry,' she mumbled, her expression filled with angst. 'I'm so jealous of the relationship that you share with her. I wished we could share the same kind of relationship. But it's not possible anymore. I'm sure that you must be hating me now.'
'It's true that Gakkuri and I are very close. And who knows, maybe one day, you and I will also be this close.'
Her eyes widened at me for a minute, before she smiled to herself.
'I'd love that.'
Unexpectedly, she snatched the handkerchief I had in hand, declaring, 'I'm going to keep this!'
And on this note, she stood up and began to walk away, accompanied by her three canids which appeared.
I lost sight of them when they entered the forest.
***
A few minutes later…
'Tsunan?' I called, timidly from the corridor, as I arrived in front of the open door of his room and my eyes landed onto the doctor where he was sitting outside, under the veranda, smoking a cigarette.
He took a glance at me over his shoulder.
'May I come in?'
'Yes, please!'
Crossing the room, I made my way to onto the veranda and sat myself down beside him to admire the sky which was absolutely cloudless now.
And here in the mountains, we could spot stars more easily than in town.
The glittering balls of lights adorned the sky like a trail of shinning powder.
It was divinely beautiful.
'Do you want me to extinguish?' he asked me, making a small sign with his cigarette.
'No, please, don't bother. I wanted to apologize to you for having bumped into you and scooted away like I did without giving you an explanation, earlier.'
'It's okay. Say, what happened with Hatsu before that?'
I flushed up as I remembered it.
He scrutinized my expression for a minute, before he asserted, 'Judging from your reaction, it must have been something perverted.'
Something occurred to me at that moment.
I looked down at the electric sparklers in my possession.
'Where did you get these?' he asked.
'It's Hatsu who have them to me in apology. Will you lend me your lighter, please?'
He handed the object to me and feeling all ecstatic, I lit the electric sparklers one at a time, admiring the beauty of the flashing lights.
This marked our second and last night at the onsen.
***
The following day…
Katsuya Hattori didn't return back to Toda with the others after the trip to the onsen.
Instead, he headed for his home town to visit a certain person, having a lot of things on his heart that he couldn't keep for himself.
He had been surprised to learn from Ayame Tsuge- who had investigated on the said-person- that she still lived at the same address after so many years.
It was in the mid-afternoon that Katsuya arrived at the door of her apartment but the girl was apparently not at home.
Shizuka Noriasu had been to Toda for some work and was supposed to be back home some two days ago.
Has she gone out?
Sitting down in front of her door, the ginger-haired boy waited for her to come back.
Hours ticked by and the day was about to come to an end but the girl still didn't show up.
Unable to hold still anymore, Katsuya decided to go look for her. He remembered that she liked to go take a stroll at sunset onto the nearby bridge over the large river traversing town.
And indeed, he found her there, but a bad surprise was awaiting him.
Shizuka was sitting over the balustrade, her feet dangling in the open air, a bottle of saké in her hand.
Katsuya, who was in all his states to see the girl, felt his stomach twist with dread.
'Shizuka, what are you doing?' he demanded, approaching her carefully; alarm bells going off in his head.
The river was very far below. There was no chance that she would come out unhurt if she ever fell.
'You're going to fall! Get down of there!'
The light-brown haired girl turned her head on the side to look at him, her expression filled with surprise.
'Katsuya? What are you doing here?'
'I was looking for you! But, get down of there first, and then, we'll talk!'
'Tell me that you love me and I'll do as you say,' she taunted, before stating, 'Nah! You know what? Don't say anything! No matter what you say, I will have a hard time believing you.'
She pulled herself up into a standing position, teetering dangerously. 'It's the first time that I'm drinking alcohol and I have to admit that it doesn't suit me.'
Katsuya's heart fluttered.
'Ja, sayonara!' She was about to let herself fall backward when, Katsuya dashed for her, adrenaline shooting through his veins.
Sending his arm around her waist, he threw her down onto the ground on the bridge, ending on top of her.
Shizuka winced as she hit her head against the hard ground and for the matter of a minute, she saw stars. When she finally caught her bearings, she stared into the eyes of the ginger-haired boy on top of her for a whole moment in shock, before she became angry.
'What's your problem? What do you want of me?' she shouted, struggling under his weight. 'Leave me alone!'
He pinned her hands down by her wrists.
She struggled harder, protesting, 'Let go! Let go of me, will'ya!'
'No!' exclaimed Katsuya, in an outburst. 'No, I'm not letting go of you!' The double meaning was clear in his words. 'Because I love you! I have never been able to admit it to myself before. For years, I've tried to forget you without any success!'
She ceased to move to stare at him again, unable to put a name on the emotions she was feeling at this particular moment.
'Please, say something,' he told her, his voice softer. 'Tell me that I'm a liar, a manipulator; insult me if you want, but don't stay mute. You can even hate me for having said this to you, but there, I love you Shizuka, and I can't do anything about it.'
'Obā-san, look at these two adults over there! What are they doing?' asked a little boy, who was passing by with his grand-mother at that moment.
'Don't look at them! Today's youngsters have really got no manners or respect for others!' grumbled the old lady, as she ushered the kid away.
Becoming self-conscious, Katsuya and Shizuka moved away from each other instantly, sitting with their backs turned onto each other and hiding the flush of color on their faces.
'I- I don't hate you,' Shizuka informed the ginger-haired boy. 'But how can I trust you...'
Turning to her, he pleaded, 'Give me a chance to prove my sincerity to you! I beg of you!'
She fixated him over her shoulder in consideration for a whole moment, before she accepted, 'Alright.'
She had to admit to herself that if she hadn't moved out of the apartment Katsuya had helped her moved in several years ago, it was probably due to the fact that, deep down, she hoped that one day he's show up in front of her door and they could get back together.
She had been waiting for him.
Thank you for reading!
Glossary
Obā-san - Grand-mother